


Believer

by Dante_Quintana



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: How Do I Tag, Hurt/Comfort, Implied/Referenced Self-Harm, M/M, Mutual Pining, Poor Keith, after discovering Keith is part Galra, before Shiro went missing, first thing on here dont shoot me, i cant write ik dont kill me, idk songfic i guess, klance, the poor angry baby can't win
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-20
Updated: 2017-07-20
Packaged: 2018-12-04 12:17:55
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,494
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11555055
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Dante_Quintana/pseuds/Dante_Quintana
Summary: It wasn't the comments the others made that got to Keith, it was the terrified whispers, the fearful glances, the going out of their way to not touch him. That's what got to him.





	Believer

Keith scowled as he heard the doors to the training room open, he didn't want to talk to anyone. He'd already said all the words inside his head, how he was tired of the way things had been since they'd discovered he was part Galra. He was sick of the whispers or the scared glances coming from Allura or even Coran, when Keith got to angry. He was sick of Pidge treating him like a god damned science experiment, wondering all the things he could do, new things about him they were yet to discover. He was the one at the sail, not anyone else. He wasn't some weapon they needed to learn how to use, he was still the same person, though quite a bit angrier. But who could really blame him for being angry? He was the enemy now. He was halfway the enemy anyway. 

Everyday he looked in the mirror, he expected to be turning purple. "Level 15!" he shouted in exasperation, he just wanted to train until he passed out and didn't have to think about anything anymore. Not his parents, not his teammates. Not the fact he'd been broken from a young age, it had made him stronger, in theory. Really it just made him better at hiding any emotions held, he'd learned long ago to discard his feelings. They didn't matter. The red paladin heard someone saying something to him, but whoever it was he ignored them. 

Suddenly the training sequence stopped, whoever was in the room must have stopped it. Keith scowled, breathing heavily, tightening his grip on his bayard. "What do you want?" he demanded, he sounded tired. He was tired. "you missed dinner." Lance, Lance was the one in the room. The absolute last person Keith wanted to talk to right now. Everytime he looked at him, a pang went through his heart, he didn't know what it was or why it happened, but he hated it, he hated it because it was unfamiliar. All because his dad couldn't keep it in his pants, Keith wished he had. Then he wouldn't be here right now. He didn't want to be here, he didn't want to be alive. "I know," Keith answered, turning to face Lance. He looked worried, which only caused Keith to scowl. Why worry about him, he was a monster. 

"I missed it on purpose" he said, putting his bayard in his belt as he walked past Lance "no one wants to see me, and I can't blame them. I don' want to see me either." before the blue paladin could respond, Keith was gone, running down the hall to his room. Lance sighed, deciding he'd bring the food to Keith, he hadn't eaten since he and Shiro had come back a couple days before, and he'd been training quite a lot. He shook his head as he walked down the hall to the kitchen. 

=========

Keith stared at the ceiling, laying on his bed. He'd taken a hot shower to clear his head, the burning sensation distracting him from his current situation. He'd put on a comfortable pair of pants and hadn't bothered with a shirt, just laying on the bed staring blankly, picking at the scabs on his arm, causing them to bleed. He didn't hear his door open, but he did hear when Lance spoke "since you wouldn't come to the food goo, I decided the food goo should come to you" Lance chuckled a bit, standing awkwardly in front of the door as it wooshed shut behind him. "dude your room is a mess, you should really- wait Keith are you crying?" Keith hadn't even noticed the tears going down his face "no," he answered simply, looking down so his still damp hair covered his face. 

Lance put the bowl of food goo on the nearest surface, which happened to be the floor. He sat down on the bed beside the red paladin, worry evident on his face. He placed a hesitant hand on his shoulder, taking it as a good sign that Keith didn't immediately jerk away from the touch. "Keith, it's alright, talk to me. You may drive me insane sometimes mullet but I still care about you." Keith didn't speak for several moments before answering "why? I'm just a monster. You should hate me, I know I hate me. So does Allura, Coran, Shiro, Hunk, Pidge, everyone," whether the boy was laughing or crying, it couldn't really be told. But it was one of the two, his body shaking like crazy.

"They don't hate you Keith," Lance said, frowning as he noticed the blood on Keith's arm, on the sheets. How thin he was, how cold it was in this room. The mess. The mess wasn't Keith, Keith kept everything somewhat orderly, not this disaster. Bloody bandages were strewn around, his bayard throw carelessly on the night stand, clothes all over the floor. He noticed Keith's crying had become louder, and there was definitely more of it. He wrapped the boy in a hug, not caring if his shirt got blood or tears on it. He rubbed his back, frowning a bit at how thin he was but kept trying to reassure him. "I'm a monster" he sobbed out, multiple times. "weak, pathetic" Keith mumbled these words occasionally, Lance reassuring him that they weren't true, not in any way. 

It took a long time for Keith to stop crying, a good 45 minutes went by before he stopped, though he still clung to Lance like he was his lifeline, cause at the moment he was. Keith's face was buried in his shoulder, breathing in his scent. He smelled like vanilla and spices, it was an odd combination but it smelled nice. Lance was nice, he was warm and comforting and Keith never wanted to let go. Never wanted to leave his arms. Except maybe to kiss him. He froze at his own thoughts, what the hell was wrong with his brain? Why was he thinking about Lance that way, he didn't like him like that. Then again, he hadn't been lying to himself when he said those things. Damn, was this love, or was that just the pain in his heart talking, the loneliness, latching onto any sort of affection he got. 

"I ruined your shirt, blood and tears," Keith mumbled, lifting his head, almost like an apology. Lance shrugged "it'll wash out," he answered. Keith nodded, burying his face back in the crook of his neck, letting thoughts about the blue paladin creep into his mind. Little did he know Lance was having similar thoughts, how Keith smelled like sandalwood and cinnamon, another weird but nice combination. How his skin was soft and that he was warm, how he at this point was practically curled into Lance's lap, how nice it would be to sit like this everyday. Both of their faces were burning as they sat in a comfortable silence. 

"Will you let me clean up your arm?" Lance asked suddenly, Keith tensed but nodded, letting go of Lance. He missed the warmth instantly, his room was always freezing but it was worse just coming from being warm. He let Lance lead him into the bathroom, which was no cleaner than the bedroom, towels and dirty clothes and more bloody bandages and half empty bottles everywhere. Lance cleaned up Keith's arm the best he could, wrapping it up once he found some clean bandages since it was still bleeding. 

Lance looked at him hesitantly before asking "anywhere else?" he asked, almost hesitant. Keith shook his head, looking away, his hair like a back curtain covering his face. Lance stared at him, unknown to the red paladin, he really was beautiful, even if he didn't realize it, Lance had no clue how he didn't. He'd always been beautiful, and Lance had always a crush on the stoic and temperamental boy. Back at Garrison he'd made up the rivalry, to hide his feelings, ignore them, push them down. He thought they were wrong, and then he'd told his mom, she always made him feel better. God, Lance missed his mom, he missed all his siblings too. 

He quickly shut his thoughts down, he didn't need to think about them now. Not while Keith was hurting. That's when he noticed that Keith was crying, he couldn't see his face or hear him cry, but he could tell from the way his body shook uncontrollably. Lance tapped on his leg, and when he turned to loo at him, Lance opened his arms. 

Keith took the offer immediately, not an ounce of hesitation. He felt Lance's arms wrap around him, his hand once again moving in soothing motions across his back. It left goosebumps along his skin but he was sure he could blame that on the cold, or the fact that he was once again sobbing into the crook of Lance's neck for the second time that night. 

It didn't take nearly as long for Keith to stop crying this time, only about 15 minutes. But he was still shaking long after he stopped crying, clinging tightly to Lance. He wasn't going to let go this time, not again. He felt safer in Lance's arms, for some reason, he didn't know why and he didn't care, he liked the safe warm feeling he got sitting here. 

He doubted Lance felt the same, he was probably ready for Keith to stop crying into his shoulder and clinging to him like a child. And because of this Keith let go, stood up, and walked back to his bed, grabbing the thin blanket off the bed, about to wrap it around himself before throwing it to the ground, deciding he deserved to freeze. "Monsters don't deserve blankets," he muttered, thinking out loud, or someone like Lance, he added silently. Kieth pulled his legs to hit chest, hiding his face in his knees and as much in the corner of his bed as he possibly could be. 

He frowned when he felt himself getting pulled out of the corner, and to have a blanket wrapped around him and to be pulled into Lance's side before he could protest in any way. "You aren't a monster" he stated simply. Keith scowled, pulling away and shoving the blanket off "yes, I really am. I'm horrible, a monster, maybe my dad wasn't even human maybe he's some horrible alien that just looks human!" Keith shouted, kicking things around his room as he spoke. "I don't deserve to be a paladin of Voltron, you should find a new pilot for Red, she deserves better than me," Keith sounded almost bitter 

Lance got off the bed, grabbing Keith's bandaged arm, "Listen to me Keith, Red chose you, you're definitely worthy of being a paladin and you're the perfect choice to pilot the red lion, I honestly couldn't think of anyone better. Besides we don't want anyone else, we want _you_ Keith. We love you, _I_ love you. 

Keith stared, face going red. No way Lance meant that, not a chance in the world 

_I love you_

The words played over and over in his mind, it took him awhile to realize that Lance was speaking. "-don't feel the same way really I understand I mean who'd like good for nothing Lance-" he was cut off by Keith pressing his lips to his own. Keith had wanted him to stop rambling and that seemed like the most effective way to do it, and he was right, it effectively shut him up. the kiss was short, but those few seconds were amazing and when they moved apart they both had bright red across their faces. 

"so are we-" Keith started but was cut off by Lance, "yes," he said nodding frantically. Keith laughed a bit at his answer, jumping when his stomach growled. Lance narrowed his eyes a bit "right, forgot I came in here to make you eat food goo" he mumbled, grabbing the bowl off the floor with one hand before dragging Keith out of the room with his other hand, their fingers laced together. 

When they walked into the kitchen, Pidge was sitting on the table typing away at her laptop. She looked up when she saw them come in, looking at their intertwined hands and simply said "Hunk owes me a batch of cookies" before looking back at her laptop. Lance gaped at her while Keith rolled his eyes. When Pidge looked up again she frowned "hey Keith, what happened to your arm?" she questioned, gesturing to the bandaged arm. 

Keith looked away, taking the new bowl of food goo Lance was trying to hand Keith "it's nothing, I fell is all," he said, sitting across from Pidge. Pidge gave him a suspicious look before going back to typing away on her laptop. Once Keith finished his bowl of food goo he felt his lack of sleep beginning to catch up to him. He placed the bowl into the sink, muttering a goodbye to Pidge and hearing Lance say something like "bye Pidgeon," soon after hearing the clink that signaled Pidge had tried to throw her spoon at Lance and had missed. 

Keith got back to his room before Lance, since Lance had to deal with the whole spoon thing and also stopped by his room and a closet to get some extra blankets seeing as Keith seemed to have all the extra pillows possible but only one of the ridiculously thing blankets. How had that boy not frozen to death? When Lance walked in Keith has nestle himself into his nest of pillows, curled around one with the blanket half on him. He seemed to have fallen asleep in the time it took Lance to get back. He sighed and draped the blankets over him, laying bed next to him. Keith instantly curled into the extra warmth that Lance brought, cuddling into his side. Lance smiled, wrapping his arms around Keith before falling asleep. Little did he know that Keith had woken up when Lance laid down, his last thought before he drifted off into unconsciousness being a thought he had told himself to never think, never hope, never believe. But just this once he let himself be a believer. He still wasn't ok, not even close but maybe, just maybe, he could be. 

================

Coran entered Keith's room, he was unable to find Lance so he figured he'd rouse the red paladin then go off to find the blue. What he didn't expect to see was the two wrapped around each other in a nest of pillows and blankets.He smiled, today was supposed to be a break day, they could rest a bit more. When he got back to the breakfast table, where Pidge was eating the batch of cookies Hunk had made her for some reason, and was asked where Lance and Keith were, he simply smiled and said he had no clue.


End file.
